Early Warnings

“Afternoon, Miss Summers,” John greeted as he stepped inside the classroom, smiling brightly.

“John!” June Summers replied happily as she put down a brush and hurried over to give him a very unprofessional hug. That was new. Not that John minded as her sizeable tits squished against his chest.

“Have you been well, John?”

“Could be better, but things have been okay,” John replied as she let go and ushered him in.

“That’s good,” Miss Summers replied. “You were looking so glum for a while. I hope things at home are getting better.”

Like the student body, most of the faculty had heard a partial truth of John’s circumstances. “They are, hopefully,” John replied lightly as he sat down at one of many empty tables.

Not long after, John’s peers began to trickle in. It was a small art class of only nine students, and of those, only John and one other named Shawn were male. That wasn’t to say there weren’t other male art students (many took art exclusively to have close contact with Miss Summers), but they were either in a different stream or were unfortunate enough to have been dealt a different art teacher.

“Hmm… and where is Shawn today? Not late again, I hope,” Miss Summers tsked as she went through the class roster.

“I haven’t seen him in any of our other shared classes, Miss,” Chelsea Sharp spoke up, drawing John’s eyes to her.

There were two infamous blondes at Ashcroft. Vanessa, aka the bitch queen, was one for reasons that should be apparent. Chelsea was the other. She had a body that ought to belong to a cheerleader, but she was by no means the cliche ditzy blonde girl on the sidelines. On the other hand, she was the quintessential strict and studious girl who seemed to live and breathe nothing but school, study, and the student council. She had actually been a crush of his in high school. Alas, he’d gone through the entire thing having hardly spoken a word to her. Her stern demeanour and frighteningly cold attitude towards John specifically hadn’t helped either.

“Probably too busy boning Daphne,” one of the other girls chuckled. “Did you hear they caught the two of them together on the roof?”

“I’m aware,” Chelsea replied briskly. “And I’d ask you not go spreading mindless gossip about your peers,” she added. For some reason she glanced towards John while she said that.

“Now, now, settle down,” Miss Summers clapped, silencing the rising chatter. “Figure will be the subject of today’s session. Fortunately for us, there are some lovely young bodies throughout the room. Would anyone like to volunteer?”

The silence in the class fell to awkward levels as people suddenly found the wooden desks to be objects of utter fascination. The general sense of the air was that Miss Summers was concocting some scheme.

“Hmm? No takers?” Miss Summers sighed. “Well this won’t do. How about I choose someone, then?” She drew out a long pause as if to consider her options, but the sinking feeling in John’s chest told him she already had her victim in mind. “John! Would you come up here, please?”

“You know… I’d rather sketch instead. Maybe you could pose for us instead?” John countered, putting on a warm and slightly flirty smile.

Miss Summers seemed to consider it for a moment before shaking her head. “Nu-uh, there’s no escaping this, mister,” she smiled back. “Think of your peers. You’ll be a great help,” she assured him, though John got the sense she wasn’t thinking of her students in the slightest with this request.

Reluctantly, he got up and moved to the centre of the room to stand on the small platform, very conscious of the eyes focused on him.

“Now hurry and take your shirt off — pants too if you’re feeling bold,” Miss Summers winked as she threw a curveball..

Excuse me? Yeah, no thanks. Last thing he needed were pictures of him in his boxers circulating around the school. “Uh… I’d rather keep my clothes on…”

“Aww… would it make you more comfortable if we all took our clothes off too?” Miss Summers laughed lightly as the rest of the class let out a unanimous splutter.

“Miss Summers!” Chelsea coughed. “That would be wildly inappropriate.”

“Yeah, uh… that sounds like the opposite of comfortable,” John laughed nervously. Though he had to admit, the thought of women like June and Chelsea stripping down was an appealing one.

June turned her innocent smile towards the student council member. “It’s quite alright. We’re all adults here… and it’s for the sake of art.” Her argument wasn’t quite so convincing given she looked ready to take a bite out of John.

“I-in any case, we are not the models here,” Chelsea replied quickly before snapping at John. “J-just hurry up and pose, Newman, so we can get on with it.”

“Yes, shirt off, John! I promise I’ll make it up to you later,” she winked.

‘What exactly was that supposed to mean?’ John’s mind reeled at impure thoughts of June stripping down for a private session. ‘Bad John!’ he shook his head and scolded himself. ‘She’s not part of the Abyss, you don’t want to bring her any trouble.’

“We’re waiting,” Miss Summers hummed.

John let her know just how much he loathed this with his eyes as he begrudgingly unfastened his tie before opening the buttons on his collared shirt. June simply batted her eyelids and smiled sweetly, feigning ignorance.

As he shrugged off his shirt, the class let out a collective “oooh”. His body was lean with muscles clearly defined but not obnoxiously bulging. Running around and swinging two swords was a good workout as it turned out.

‘Well, okay, maybe this isn’t so bad,’ John mused as he basked in the appreciative gazes of the art girls. It certainly did his ego good.

“Good, now flex for us,” Miss Summers cooed.

“Seriously?”

“What good is drawing figure if you’re just standing there as stiff as a board?” June’s coquettish smile urged him on.

He sighed and assumed a stance that emphasised the muscles in his arms.

“Perfect! Stay that way!” June said enthusiastically before licking her lips. “Mmm, you really do have marvelous muscle definition; you’ve been working out.”

‘Eh, just slaying a few monsters here and there,’ he thought idly as the girls began to put pencil to paper.

Teaching was an idea apparently forgotten by Miss Summers, as she too decided to pick a pad and started sketching. And so it was that John spent an entire period posing half naked for a bunch of women ranging from cute to drop-dead gorgeous. ‘Maybe if I drop my pants they’ll start throwing money my way,’ John thought wryly, as he spent the period musing to himself to stay entertained.

He let out a hearty sigh of relief once the bell rang, liberating him from his idle prison.

“Thank you, John,” Miss Summers smiled mischievously. “If you have a little time before your next class, I can make it up to you with a private lesson.”

“Uhm, I have a free, so sure,” John replied without thinking, while his classmates packed their things and left.

“Delightful,” June grinned as she eyed the door. When the last student had left, Miss Summers casually locked the door and shut the blinds before sauntering over to John. “Oh, no need to put your shirt back on, dear,” she chuckled lightly when she saw him making for the article in question.

“Uh… Miss Summers?” John blushed as he realised where this was heading.

“You can call me June,” Miss Summers put one finger to her lips before playfully pushing on John’s bare chest so that he took a seat on her desk. As her fingers glided over the taut muscles in his chest, she let out an excited giggle, before straddling him and grinding her pelvis against his. “Mmm… you’ve really shaped up this past month… Forgive me, but I just can’t hold back any longer,” she apologised before leaning in and running her tongue along his lips.

John moaned into her mouth as their tongues wrestled in a wet kiss, while June’s fingers danced down his chest and began to rub needily against his groin. With her free hand, she began unfastening the buttons on her collared shirt to reveal her ample cleavage. She really had gone without a bra today. ‘Fuck me,’ John thought blissfully as June worked his groin through his pants. It was clear he would be in the hands of an expert, but… ‘You promised no non-Abyssals,’ his consciousness reminded him.

“I’m sorry, June,” John apologised as he gently pushed her hand away. His boner strained in his pants as if to chase after her expert digits, letting John know just what it thought of this particular course of action with painful throbbing. “I-I can’t,” he said breathlessly.

“Oh?” June voiced curiously, though there was a note of sincere disappointment.

“I… have a girlfriend,” John grasped for the easiest excuse. “I can’t do this.”

“I see…” June sighed, stepping away and redoing the buttons on her shirt. “I’m sorry, John, I wasn’t aware.”

“No, it’s fine,” John said quickly. “For what it’s worth, a part of me really doesn’t want to stop.”

June chuckled in reply. “Well… the offer still stands.”

John simply shook his head and smiled wryly as he put his shirt back on. At least she was taking it in stride; this could have been far more awkward.

“Still… I hope you’ll think of me if things ever fall through… I’ll always be open for young studs like you,” June winked at him as she unlocked the classroom door and opened the blinds.

“Yeah, somehow I know I’ll be thinking of you even if things don’t,” John replied as he picked up his bag and made for the door.

June laughed melodically in response. “My, oh my, aren’t you the flirt?”

“I guess so,” John replied before stepping out the door. “Have a good day, Miss Summers.”

She simply smiled slyly and saw him off with a blown kiss.

A goofy grin was plastered across John’s face. He’d been hot for his teacher the entire year, so it was surreal to have been so close to her just now; a kiss from her and sex on the table if he ever felt like taking her up on it. It was like he’d just won a million dollars. The prospect of walking right back into the art room and taking her up on the offer immediately was seriously tempting... ‘It would take some utter bullshit for today to be ruined,’ he thought idly before smiling wryly. ‘...aaand I hope I didn’t just jinx it.’

“Newman,” Chelsea called out to him sternly.

‘...Aaand I jinxed it,’ John sighed as he turned to face the student council member. ‘Was she waiting for me?’ he wondered as he eyed her cautiously. The frown lining her lips and suspicious look in her eyes told him this wouldn’t be a pleasant conversation. Was she going to confront him about June? At least nothing devastatingly serious had happened beyond what she usually got away with. Well… maybe a little more than that, but it wasn’t like John planned on filing a sexual harassment complaint.

“If this is a proposal? You’d be the third today… but I’ll say it in advance: I’m not interested,” he joked lightly.

There wasn’t so much as a flicker of change in her stern expression as she ignored his statement and launched straight into the interrogation, “Shawn’s not the only student that’s been absent from school lately. There’s been a concerning increase in the number of absences lately. Any idea why?”

“Nope,” John replied easily, slightly dumbfounded by the left-field question. Still, he was relieved this wasn’t about June.

Chelsea crossed her arms unhappily and her foot began to tap on the ground. “And why was it you were absent from your detention a month back?” she asked.

The fact that she’d chosen now to spring the question on him was surprising to say the least. But John thought he was beginning to understand what this was about. According to the reports he’d received, Chelsea along with her friend Sam had followed Frank to John’s house the morning after it was attacked by Vulpis and his wargs. It was actually the two girls that had called the police and caused all the trouble — Frank and his goons had just ran away.

“Look, I know you saw some shit anyone would rather not see, but I’d rather not get into the circumstances of what happened,” he replied kindly but guardedly.

The tempo at which her foot tapped increased as her impatience grew. “It’s my responsibility as a member of the student council to look after my peers. Now I don’t quite understand what’s going on with the student body right now or why so many aren’t turning up to class, but I think you’re involved somehow or at the very least know something,” Chelsea said pointedly.

“I seriously have no clue why people aren’t showing up at school,” John replied steadily. “Besides, why would I care? The flu’s probably just being passed around or something.”

Chelsea’s stern look was unwavering. “To be frank, I don’t believe you.”

“What the fuck more do you want, Chelsea?” John was seriously getting ticked now. “I already told you I don’t know anything. Or what, are you just pointing the finger my way because people say I’m a murderer? All you need to know is that the situation was resolved and the Police and the Academy Board found me innocent of any wrongdoing.”

The student council member pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh. “Fine then. It’s clear I won’t get anything more from asking you directly. Good day,” she said, briskly spinning on her heels and walking away.

“Jesus Christ,” John muttered under his breath. ‘You’d think I kicked her dog or something.’

He cast Observe on her back, hoping he’d learn what the fuck that was about.

‘She thinks I’m cute?’ John wondered in disbelief. ‘She sure has a funny way of showing it.’

Still, it was concerning to John that Chelsea and Sam were chasing shadows. For their sakes, John sincerely hoped they never stumbled into the Abyss. He shook his head and continued on down the hall, his good mood shattered. But he clung to the hope that he’d have a good time with Red at tonight’s party.